Here's what I made earlier

Been a long time since I did the blogging thing, so time for a catch-up!

Firstly, I've been on holiday over the past week - a welcome "staycation" with a couple of fab day trips which I'm hoping to blog about very soon (my version of 'very soon' at the moment is any time between 4 to 7 weeks...)
 

I finally took the plunge and bought a Galaxy SIII mini smartphone four weeks ago.  I am surprised that I have not gone bald since then, as I've been tearing my hair out over even the most simple aspects of it.  It's a good enough phone, but why are these bloody things not supplied with a manual?

Talking of hair, I have made several attempts to lighten my too-dark brown hair, and now I have some kind of half red, half brown dip-dye-in-reverse thing going on.

After weeks of outrageous weight gain, I managed to lose a few pounds by sticking to WeightWatchers Online.  Then proceeded to undo all the good work over the past 9 days.  Oh well...back to work tomorrow and back to the discipline of counting daily points.  I feel I'm in a good position to lose a few more pounds/inches for our big summer holiday, which is just 11 weeks away.   Croatia is calling - but there are so many options that I'm getting a headache just deciding where to go!

So I believe there's some football tournament on at the moment?  Yes we are in the midst of the World Cup, but if I'm honest, the first phase has pretty much passed me by - too many matches, too little time, and no prime time highlights programmes.  I'm trying to keep up with the knockout phase though. 

At long last I managed to post my Eurovision 2014 reviews over at EuropeCrazy.  Hoping to post the Copenhagen holiday diaries pretty soon too :)

Busy doing nothing

My self-imposed blogging/tweeting exile so far hasn't really yielded much results.  I haven't finished reading  any books, the telly backlog is still piling up (although I'm making inroads), and the painting/decorating...oh forget it. 

Checking out the odd bit of football when I can - from what I've seen so far, Euro 2012 has been an inevitable disappointment so far, with very few outstanding performances.  Germany are my hot tip to win the whole thing, which has probably jinxed their chances :)

Since that sickness bug, my energy levels have been shot to pieces, and I've been so down in the dumps over the past week that you wouldn't believe, for one reason or another.  On the plus side though, I've got a week off next week which will hopefully be sprinkled with sunshine rather than showers!

On the up.

In just under two hours the World Cup final will be starting: Holland v Spain, soundtracked by an orchestra of vuvuzelas....I'm going to miss vuvuzelas. Everyone hates them, but I actually quite like them. That seems to be the story of my life: I get on well with some people that others hate, I like music that others hate, and I like vuvuzelas. Probably because they appeal to my juvenile sense of humour: listening to a football match is like a whole stadium of people all breaking wind at once. Just as well it's not smell-o-vision.

Since the World Cup started, I've been parked in front of the TV most nights watching football, gorging on nibbles, and getting so fat that I'll soon be a prime candidate for a Channel 5 shock-doc. This also coincided with a period of extreme chronic back pain which meant I couldn't exercise, and a period of extreme stress which I decided to address by...comfort eating.

So now that the World Cup is over, there are no more excuses. Tomorrow the new regime starts, and this time I mean it!! Exercise, careful eating and staying focused - that's the plan.

I'm also quite excited by my return to full-time blogging next week :)

(almost) the longest day

Technically I shouldn't really be here, as EuropeCrazy and the Ramblings are "on a break" as they say, but what the heck...

Weather: it's been nice and dry and warm of late. That's all very well, but it means that we are treated to the sight of sunburnt men with bellies the likes of which were last seen in a labour ward.

Weight: I can't really speak about anyone's weight at the moment. The fact remains that I've gained half a stone and become significantly fatter since falling off the wagon at the end of March. So I started another '12 week plan' last week and have lost 1lb so far after a week's hard work and good behaviour.

Travel: the summer holiday 2010 discussions haven't started yet, but will start soon. At the moment I don't know where we'll end up!

Footie: The World Cup's been on for just over a week and I'm still waiting for it to come to life, as it's all been pretty uninspiring so far IMHO. There's been more attention paid to the aural torment of the vuvuzelas, which says a lot about the quality of the football on the pitch. Even the big guns are too inconsistent. And even the eye candy is disappointing :( Still hoping that Argentina win it.

But the worst thing of all = talentless morons masquerading as TV pundits. For everything of course, there's a Facebook group...http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56636721228